Sunday, November 19, 2017

Nagpur: Come December, one can fly to Bengaluru in the morning and return the same night. This has become possible after the city's Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar airport, which is slated for privatization, finally got a taker for its night parking slot.
GoAir, which has added new flights in its winter schedule, has slotted an early morning flight to Bengaluru from Nagpur and becomes the first domestic operator to start a base flight from the city.
Base flight means the plane will come to Nagpur in the night and will remained parked here and will take off the next day morning. The services are set to begin from December 8 with the flight from Bengaluru arriving here at 11.50pm and taking off the next day at 6.05am.
A statement issued by Go Air says, "Nagpur has been developing as an important business destination over the years and we are very optimistic about the prospects of operating flight out of here. Nagpur is poised to be a key station for GoAir's future expansion plans."
Mihan India Limited (MIL), the airport's operator, had been promoting the airport as an ideal location for night parking of aircraft on account of ample space available here. The MIL is also wooing other airlines to take up night-parking slots here. Talks are underway with Indigo Airlines. This would bring additional income for the airport which is now running in losses.
Go Air already operates one hopping flight from Nagpur to Bengaluru while Indigo runs two on this sector. However, all the flights are either scheduled in the evening or night.
"The timings would also provide easy connectivity to international flights towards the eastern part of the world," said Ravi Shinde, of MR Travels located at Jaffar Nagar.
19/11/17 Shishir Arya/Times of India